Confessions of a Potty Trainer

One year ago, right around this time, we halfheartedly attempted to potty train Lucas. It did not go well. Since that debacle, we have been somewhat hesitant to give it another go. There was one day, a few months ago (I believe it was the day we put our house on the market) that he announced that he wanted to stop wearing diapers and wanted to go on the potty. That enthusiasm was short lived, and approximately 10 hours and five pairs of soiled underwear later, we decided it still was not the time.

Potty training is hard work, and if I am completely honest I think that I had been putting it off. We have been so busy and exhausted because of all of this business with the move, the idea of going full throttle into potty training seemed completely overwhelming. The past few months, Lucas began going on the potty before his bath, without screaming bloody murder and was actually pretty proud of himself about it. But that's where it ended. Until one afternoon a few weeks ago out of nowhere as I was changing Luke's diaper, I decided that's enough! 5 straight years of daily diaper changes is enough! He is ready - let's just DO THIS THING.

Marty and I talked it over and decided that when we got back from vacation, it was the end of diapers. That was it - the end of the line. The date was set. We began giving him pep talks, preparing him for what was to come, and giving ourselves pep talks about how great this was going to be and how much it would be worth it once we got through it.

Two days before vacation, I was wandering around Target picking up sunscreen and other random things for our trip and decided spur of the moment to pick up some superhero underwear for when we got back from vacation. The next morning, I excitedly showed Lucas his new undies, and he immediately begged to wear them, so I put them on him, at first just to humor him. Elise had a doctor's appointment back near our old house (nearly an hour away) so as we were getting ready to leave, I told Lucas we needed to put on a diaper. He cried and cried and begged to keep wearing his new undies. I decided that forcing him to wear a diaper was probably not putting us on the path to being diaper-free in a week and a half, so I threw a change of clothes and a diaper in a bag - I would just change his clothes when he inevitably had an accident.

We had a busy day - an hour drive, doctor's visit, a playdate, a drive home and a nap. And to my utter astonishment Lucas was accident free (and diaper free) through it all! The next morning, as we scrambled to get ready for our beach vacation, Lucas once again begged to wear is underwear. Marty and I looked at each other and asked Ok, are we doing this NOW? It seemed like the momentum was there and waiting until we got back from vacation could damage all this great progress we were making (which was initiated by him!) so we sighed and threw a bunch of underwear and changes of clothes into his suitcase and headed for vacation. We were, in fact, doing this now.

I almost immediately regretted this decision. As I mentioned, potty training is hard work - and hard work is not exactly something that sounds fun for a relaxing beach vacation. When we arrived at the beach, it wasn't quite time for us to check in at the house yet, so we stopped at a playground to kill some time. It was after 2pm and he had done a great job on the trip down, but within 20 minutes after arriving at the playground he announced "I pooped!" leaving me wondering what in the world we were possibly thinking. How did I ever think this was a good idea I wondered as I attempted to change his dirty underwear in a completely packed car in 90 degree weather.

True, it was a major set back, and I started to feel defeated, but quickly realized that this wasn't going to be possible if we weren't energetic and positive about this. Here we are, at the beach 24/7 with our child for an entire week without any plans. It was actually the PERFECT time to potty train. Yes, there were going to be accidents, but that's to be expected. We were going to throw our all into this process and he was going to succeed. I could just feel it.

So, succeed we did! After an accident here and there the first few days, Lucas was completely accident free from Monday afternoon to Friday. We cheered, we had amazing Potty Parades, and most of all we believed in him. And he began to believe in himself.

It has by no means been completely perfect since we got back from vacation. There have been some accidents and some setbacks. But when he woke us up one morning at 5am completely dry saying "I have to go potty" I knew that by and large we have gotten over the potty hurdle and we succeeded.

It wasn't the most relaxing vacation ever. But it may have been the best vacation we ever had.